Third full length album from the Danish quartet.
I’ll cut to the chase here. The third full length album from the Danish quartet didn’t appear in my iTunes when I put the CD in my Mac. It’s probably a good thing, because there is no way iTunes could have categorised what I’m hearing.
Starting off with the title track, which has a brooding beginning, vocalist Mads Kristensen rasps his way through the song. I use the word ‘vocalist’ in preference to ‘singer’ because I can’t stand his nasally, abrasive tone. The song then breaks off into a random jazz section which is only missing a Ron Burgundy jazz flute solo. The fact that band rope in additional musicians to contribute didgeridoo, saxophone, flutes and charango (I had to look that one up!) throughout the record suggests something unusual, but ‘unpleasant’ might be a better word.
‘In A Secret World’ sounds like one of Iggy Pop’s tunes from the albums he does in French, a style I particularly hate. ‘God Is In The River’ is a marked improvement, because it’s a gentle instrumental, before it merges into the saxophone led ‘Walk Alone’. Again, the vocal is far from my taste and the song is nothing special. The more up tempo ‘Running Scared’ is better, but too little, too late.
The production and playing is all good, but I can’t stand the singer and I’d be amazed if anybody who reads Fireworks would get anything out of this album. In case you hadn’t gathered by now, it’s absolutely not for me. (And I thought it might have been…Ed)
James Gaden